Bottom line – Spurs lose best, maybe last title hope

OKLAHOMA CITY — Gregg Popovich tried to look at this through Russell Westbrook’s rose-colored glasses, and that was a mistake.

For one, Westbrook’s frames don’t have any lenses. For another, it won’t change the sting.

This was the Spurs’ best and maybe last chance. They were healthy, with the home-court advantage, just two wins from the NBA Finals.

So when Popovich said the Spurs had “a wonderful season” and “this group may have even overachieved?”

It will take a few people, notably Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, time to accept that.

At least the Spurs went out with some dignity. They began Wednesday as they hadn’t the previous three games, and here’s a nod to Tony Parker. He responded.

The Spurs followed his lead with nine 3-pointers in the first half, when they weren’t clawing at the Thunder on defense. They were the hunters, at last, and what Stephen Jackson screamed to no one in particular in the second quarter summed up their attitude.

“I’m having fun!” he yelled, with some curses attached.

But Kevin Durant ended the first half with a sign of things to come. With two Spurs on him, his 3-pointer changed both the score and the feel.

Coincidentally, the shot fell with 0.4 seconds on the clock.

Speaking of 0.4, Derek Fisher would show up later, too.

What followed proved, again, that the Spurs didn’t lose to a team they should have beaten.

Popovich said the third quarter “was like playing in mud,” and the Thunder’s talent was a reason.

This was true of the series, too: While the Spurs often had to work for a clean shot, the Thunder seemed to get one with ease.

The Thunder were better, and Popovich underlined this afterward by going through their playoff rounds. Dallas, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Spurs combined to win the Western Conference the last 13 times, and Oklahoma City beat all three.

“I think it’s pretty cool for them,” he said.

Popovich was less cool with a call that came about six minutes left. Some staff members were still talking about it an hour after the game.

Then, with the Spurs down by four points, Ginobili slipped a pass to Kawhi Leonard and proceeded forward into James Harden. Leonard made the three — but Ginobili was called for the offensive foul.

But Popovich didn’t mention it publicly, because he and his Spurs knew the truth.

“Bottom line,” said Ginobili afterward, “they made the shots they had to make.”

It was that way through the series. Serge Ibaka was perfect one night, Daequan Cook the next. When Harden wasn’t throwing in the critical 3-pointer in Game 5 at the AT&T Center, he was doing it again Wednesday.

The Thunder played with confidence as if they knew it was their time. Until a week ago, the Spurs thought the same.

Popovich denied that then, too. “I can tell you with any championship, we’ve never gone into a playoff thinking, ‘You know, this is our year. We’ve got the team. We can get it done.’?”

Maybe not. But this wasn’t like losing to Memphis a year ago. This time, after years of being short on talent and luck, they were healthy, deep and on the cusp of their fifth Finals. Better yet, two flawed teams were waiting in the east.

“I thought this was our time,” Duncan said late Wednesday, “to get back to the Finals and push for another championship.”

Instead, a team that had gone 50 days without a loss had four in a week’s time. Adding to the pain, they blew the largest halftime lead in Spurs playoff history in the finale.